It's Not a Luxury: Meaningful Work Matters Now More Than Ever

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash‍ ‍

Just Keeping Your Head Above Water

Right now, keeping your head above water might feel like all you can do. Showing up for your job, feeding yourself, caring for your people or your pets, paying the bills, and staying just enough informed about the world around you.

You know people who have lost their jobs or are waiting anxiously for the ax to fall. You get the increasingly desperate pleas for donations from nonprofits, the PTA, the political parties. You watch as the words "diversity," "equity," and "inclusion" disappear from websites and welcome placards at big box stores.

The Things We Tell Ourselves

You think to yourself, At least I have a job. I am lucky.

You think to yourself, Everything is falling apart around me; this isn't that important.

You tell yourself, It's not that bad.

You tell your friends, I'm fine.

You're not fine. But you know that compared to so many other people in our country right now, you are safe. You have a paycheck, a roof over your head, maybe a US passport, white skin, a cis body.

Empathy Is a Mixed Bag

The beautiful gift of being a thoughtful, empathetic person in the world right now is that you can see and feel what's happening to people other than yourself.

The hard part? You can see and feel what's happening to people other than yourself—and it hurts to witness. It can also cause you to feel like your own desires don't matter enough in the face of the hardship you see around you.

The People I Work With

The people I work with care about the world, about other people, and about doing meaningful work. They work in the public sector, in nonprofits and foundations; they also work in corporate settings, in academia, and in technology. They don't share one single industry or political party. They are social workers and program managers, data scientists and UX designers, teachers and transit operators.

But when I ask them what impact they want to make over their career, it can always be simplified down to: I want to help, in some way, to make the world better. And these amazing people are holding both things at once—their gratitude for what they have and their fear that the world is getting worse, not better.

Fears About Wanting More

There is another fear, though—one they often don't dare to say out loud. A fear that leads them to talk in circles, think in tangles, feel knots in their stomachs and twitches in their eyes and sudden wake-ups at night. It's the fear of holding both desire for something more and frustration at where they are right now.

Passionate people who can't express their passion. Creative people who don't get to be creative. Ambitious people who want to keep moving forward but are stuck in one place. People who want to DO SOMETHING to help and are trapped in a cycle of meetings, emails, and waiting for someone higher up to make a decision. 

It's Not a Luxury

It's not a luxury to want—to feel it deep in your bones—that you can do more. It's not a luxury to know that you get one wild and precious life and to want to spend it making an impact on the world around you. It's not self-indulgent or too privileged to realize you are ready for something different.

For all of you who are watching all the bad things happening in the world and feeling that weight and the accompanying instinct to stay unseen, you are not alone. Wanting to do more meaningful work in the world—whether by changing your job, switching your career, or leaving something that no longer serves you so you can imagine what else you can become—this feeling is not a luxury. It is not an indulgence.

We need more people, not fewer, who desire to, in some way, make the world a better place.

If this resonates with you, reach out and let’s talk.